Columbia professor under fire for blaming Israel for every problem 'in the world'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Columbia University Professor Hamid Dabashi has a history of controversial anti-Israel tweets. (Youtube)
A tenured Columbia University professor of Iranian studies is under fire for a controversial series of tweets he fired off following President Trump’s announcement the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Hamid Dabashi, who also teaches comparative literature at the Ivy League school, blamed Israel for every “dirty” problem in the world in a tweet on Monday.
A pro-Israel student group is calling on the university to rebuke Dabashi for his harsh comments.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Students Supporting Israel at Columbia University condemns Professor Dabashi's anti-Semitic post,” the pro-Israel club told Fox News in statement. “It is unfortunate that the university does not join us in our condemnation. The university's lack of action signals to all professors like Professor Dabashi that the Jewish and Zionist students on Columbia's campus are an easy target. We hope the university will decide to join us in fostering inclusivity and helping to create a campus environment where all students feel safe.”
Dabashi, who was born in Iran, denounced Trump’s decision and then bashed Israel.
“Every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world just wait for a few days and the ugly name of ‘Israel’ will pup…” Dabashi wrote in a tweet Monday linking to a New York Times article that accuses Israeli intelligence of gathering “dirt” on Benjamin Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s national security aide. “These laughing hyaenas —the Zionists the Saudis and the US neocons are f**** with the wrong country — in their stupidity and ignorance they think they are fighting with the Iranian government — they are dead wrong — they are picking up a fight...”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The anti-Israel professor also took aim at Trump.
“Everything he says is a lie – everything,” he tweeted, adding that “every decent human being on planet earth was for the Nuclear deal with Iran— every decent human being of course except for Trump and Netanyahu and their followers.“
Dabashi linked to a video from two years ago featuring celebrities Jack Black and Morgan Freeman to back up his point, as they point out that without the Iran nuclear deal “we would all be dead” or “at war with Iran.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a Facebook post, he called the Jewish State a “racist apartheid state” and then attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This ridiculous man, this notorious, corrupt, criminally insane creature, this laughing stock of every decent civilized human being on planet earth, this pathetic pathological liar, this vulgar vicious charlatan,” he wrote, “this settler colonialist racist thug, this war criminal, this leading perpetrator of crimes against humanity, this nightmare who needs to be put in a [straitjacket] and chained to a cage in an asylum house or a zoo…”
Critics called his tweets hate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Blaming the Jewish state for every problem in the world is virulent anti-Semitism, echoing rhetoric that has led to oppression and violence against Jews for centuries,” Rena Nasar, a StandWithUs campus director, told Campus Reform. “Unfortunately, this is unsurprising coming from a professor with a long history of racism against Jews and Israelis. Columbia University should unequivocally condemn this hate coming from one of its faculty members."
Neither Professor Dabashi nor the university immediately responded to request for comment.